The Big River at Kramarczuk’s

Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company, Inc. in Northeast Minneapolis runs an annual Polish Festival every Fall.  And every year they run a contest for someone to come up with a new sausage flavor to highlight at this festival.

This year the winner was my daughter, Alex!

This creative, industrious, talented chef and baker of a woman came up with not only a fantastic new sausage for them, but wrote a cute story to go with it.  Yes, obviously, I’m a proud Momma.

The prompt was to create a new American classic that represented home.  Here is what she wrote:

“Reminiscent of Johnny Cash’s “Big River,” I met my home accidentally in St. Paul, MN. This home I speak of is the love of my life, Tom. Tom and I recently moved to a little slice of heaven on Jackson St. in NE with our sausage of a bulldog (pun intended), Louis. As an ode to home, I present to you “The Big River” sausage.

I propose an andouille sausage (from the mouth of the river) stuffed with wild rice (from the source of the river) topped with a NordEast compote (a sauerkraut and relish salad infused with a Grainbelt Nordeast demi-glace).”

The wonderful folks at Kramarczuk’s made a slight alteration by making the andouille out of 100% catfish meat.

Alex and Tom came home this last weekend and brought with them some samples of not only Big River, but also Kramarczuk’s Apple and Gouda sausage and the regular sausage.  They were AMAZING!  The Big River had quite a zip to it and left us all a little breathless, but in a good way.  The Apple and Gouda was almost like a dessert!  And the regular sausage was definitely like no other!

What made this award of Alex’s even more special is how much Tim has wanted to go to Kramarczuk’s.  Tim is a huge Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives fan and of course, Guy Fieri and the show had highlighted this meat market and restaurant in one of their shows.

When Alex won the award, she called to tell us and asked if we wanted to come down for the festival where she’d be presented with the prize.  At this point I had her on speaker phone and I looked over at Tim.  He was shaking his head, with a disappointed look on his face.  As much as he would have loved to go, he couldn’t because of work…it was the first home football game with a new PA system and as AD he had to be there.  I offered to bring her sisters down and her comment was:  “That’s ok Mom, no offense, but I really wanted Tim there!”

No offense was taken…rather, I smiled widely, so happy that she loves her Step-Dad so much that she’d choose him over me for this fun occasion.

We have plans to visit Kramarczuk’s on Thanksgiving weekend when we go down for an early Christmas ‘experience present’ weekend.  This dinner is one of Tim’s presents and I have no doubt Alex will introduce him to her new friends!

More wonderful memories to come.

Patty O